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Above is a picture of A SEAL (Left) and Marcus Luttrell ( Right). The backstory on Marcus is pretty interesting after what I read. The main reason that Marcus joined the SEALS was because of the great tragedy that happened to the twin towers on 9/11. After that he went and joined a SEAL team while his brother did the same. They barley saw each other until they met at a camp in Ramadi a hotspot for terrorist activity. During Ramadi Marcus was stationed at the Marc Lee camp, right outside of the Ramadi Iraq. Their was their resting place, workplace, and training facility. During their time in Iraq the SEALS trained Iraqi teens to fight back and to fight with America against the terrorists who have threatened their homes, family, and city. Marcus later got a medical discharge and stated "I am proud to have served my country. I know that part of me will always bleed with the teams, and that my time in uniform which at the moment seems so long, has just been a short chapter in a far along book, and a brief preparation for what the future holds". Marcus also received the purple heart for his fight with SEAL team 10. Marcus is now 42 years old and lives in Texas.

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I feel that this quote is very important because it talks for itself. Many people in America these days are selfish and don't care for others. I also feel from reading this book and reading other books and watching movies is that anyone that fought for my country is my role model. Some examples are my Dad who was a Loadmaster on a C137 who did two tours in Iraq. Another is Chris Kyle, who is commonly known as the American sniper who put a dent in the enemy numbers only from sniper kills ( 160). And Marcus Luttrell who barely survived among his men and told the story of their horrific experience that left his original team dead. Most of these people live by that excerpt from John in the bible, who risk their lives so we don't have to.

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Brotherhood. That is the core of military and of life in general in my opinion. Many people try to get through basic training on their own but the instructors put in team work so that if you don't work as a team you fail. Brotherhood is what keeps some guys going in the military, keeps them laughing and company while terror breaks around them. Brotherhood keeps people going and keeps guys engaged and have company, Brotherhood is like a family, keep your brothers alive and they will do the same for you. In the book Marcus makes friends with the people in his team which makes a brotherhood. Many of those brotherhoods don't last due to a brother defending for another brother. However some of Marcus good friends are from that team and still they talk but not much about war, about life.

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Brotherhood

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" Service is selflessness - the opposite of the lifestyle that we see so much of in America today. The things that entertain us don't often lift us up, or show us as the people we can rise up to become. The people who appear in this book- and others who did things I can't talk about- are my role models. They quietly live out the idea expressed in the bible (John 15:13) " Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" ( Luttrell 351).

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In this book the only conflict is mainly yourself. From reading this book anyone can be a Navy Seal, but it's the people who work for it are the ones who get to be a Navy Seal. Many people struggle through training and quit cause the conflict of themself gets to them. They think they can't make it or aren't good enough when they just need to think five more minutes and get through. Some people dream it but it's the people who live it and work for it that are the ones who persevere. In the book for example Marcus went through the SEALS toughest course and still passed. Even though he was slower and was last at the beginning the instructors saw potential in him and made him try and try till he was the first in his group on runs, drills, and leadership.

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I feel that this quote says a lot because the people who wear that uniform and fight for this country don't get what they deserve. I feel that many people don't get honored like some should a example being the Lone Survivor who is Marcus Luttrell. After his group of five got ambushed in a tank he was the only one alive, all those men got on live tv but others die like that and don't get recognized. Some people think America is free because its free, but people risk their privileges of freedom so they can have theirs. And there are people who have that passion and that fire to run toward that gun fire for their country. Some people don't get to tell their tale even, some are KIA and don't get to tell their story of what it was like for them. I believe this is important because in the book, everyone Marcuss talks to has a different POV of what its like to them and why they joined during that time. Maybe it was because of 9/11 or maybe because of a family legacy of military, or maybe it was a choice mainly by you, to fight for your country.

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" Really this book is for all who serve, for anyone that wears the uniform; who, when the shooting stars, move toward the gunfire instead of away from it. Its for a brave breed of individuals, the warfighters , who put everything on the line that is expected of them, because they stand up for the United States and sometimes die for that privilege" ( Luttrell xiiv).

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I agree with some of the things this review talks about. I also like in the review the author says " I had a hard time reading the book not because its a bad book but because it's a good book", these days you don't find many good war books or many of them. In the article the person talks about the Seals being like bullys which I think is true, but to a extent. I feel our enemy is the real bully and the Seals are the guys that go in their and make the bully the one being picked on, based on what I read. The publisher also talks about how people must be crazy to do that training but I disagree. I think you don't need to be crazy but have a passion, a fire to commit to a brotherhood. To fight for your country, to be a Navy Seal. The publisher also talks about how this book is a eulogy for the soldiers that died in Ramadi ( Iraq ), And I agree that they should be talked about, they put out the ultimate sacrifice for their team and brothers.

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Book Worm Room

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I promise that this post will be a review of Marcus Luttrell's Service: A Navy SEAL at War. First, though, I have to start with the ridiculous, before I can give proper context, not to the sublime (because war isn't sublime), but to the important and meaningful.

The ridiculous is, of course, MSNBC's own Chris Hayes, who earned himself a great deal of much-deserved ridicule for his inability to acknowledge military heroism:

CHRIS HAYES: Thinking today and observing Memorial Day, that'll be happening tomorrow. Just talked with Lt. Col. Steve Burke [sic, actually Beck], who was a casualty officer with the Marines and had to tell people [inaudible]. Um, I, I, ah, back sorry, um, I think it's interesting because I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words "heroes." Um, and, ah, ah, why do I feel so comfortable [sic] about the word "hero"? I feel comfortable, ah, uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

One doesn't need a psychiatric degree to know that Mr. Hayes probably suffers from, or should suffer from, paruresis - the inability to urinate in front of others. Regardless of the exact nature of his physical attributes, this is a guy who, deep down, is pretty damn sure that he's under-endowed and can't measure up. Only a deep and abiding inferiority complex could see a young man, ostensibly in the prime of his physical life, unable to recognize and appreciate that others are willing to make sacrifices he's incapable of even contemplating.

Perhaps because I'm a woman, it's easy for me to acknowledge my own physical cowardice. Maybe a man has to rationalize himself away from a fight in which he could have served. For example, I know a man who could have served, but didn't, in Vietnam. He was once an anti-War protester. Now, though, he goes around boasting about how he's more man than anyone who served - "I could have done that, and I, with my super-duper manly-man skills would have out-gunned everyone there. I just chose not to serve [and, sotto voce, I'm eternally grateful my draft number didn't come up]." Hayes represents the other end of the self-justification spectrum: "Service is stupid. I would never have gone into a fight because I'm not stupid."

This is the mindset that results in movies such as the Danish film In a Better World, an Oscar-winning foreign film. Aside from some indescribably boring film-making techniques, the movie got off to a promising start, with a premise that seemed startlingly un-European: Fight back against bullies.

In the movie, Sofus, a bully, is going after another schoolboy, Elias. A new kid, Christian, who has traveled with his father and experienced many new schools, comes to this particular school and, when he is too friendly with Elias, Sofus turns on Christian too. The next time the bully starts on Elias, Christian beats the crap out of Sofus. When Christian's father picks him up from school and asks "Why?", Christian has a simple answer: If had hadn't done this, I would have been bullied again. Now, all the kids know to leave me alone.

I was impressed. Who knew that a European film could be so wise? After all, we know that, unless you stand up to bullies, they'll keep bullying. Stand up to them, however, even if you take some knocks, and they back off. It's basic school yard logic.

It turns out that I was impressed too quickly. Christian, the boy who stood up to bullies was actually a psychopath who started dragging poor victimized (but peaceful) Elias down the path to total warfare. This scenario, the movie implies, although it never says so, was how Columbine got started. Never defend yourself, because if you do, you will become a crazy wacko who tries to commit mass murder. Always let wiser, peace-making heads intervene, causing you to back off, leaving more room within which the bully can operate.

And so, at long last, we get to Marcus Luttrell's Service. Incidentally, when I speak here of Luttrell, that's a bit of a shorthand, since he worked with James D. Hornfischer, who wrote the excellent Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of her Survivors. My best guess is that Luttrell provided the stories and that Hornfischer shaped them into a very readable book.

Boiled down to its essentials, Service is the un-Chris Hayes and the un-Northern European pacifism. Instead, it's about those men who understand that the only way to deal with bullies is to take them on and defeat them.

Does this mean that those who stand against bullies are bullies themselves? No. Unlike bullies who happily and viciously trample anyone in their path, a hero carefully targets his fight, taking it to the bully, and then stands down when that fight is finished. It's that ethos that permeates Service.

I found Service very difficult to read, not because it's a bad book, but because it's a good book. Luttrell's first book, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, was painful to read, but it had what was, for me, a recognizable story arc: our hero trains; our hero faces a terrible battle in which his comrades, after fighting with awe-inspiring bravery, die; and our hero struggles through adversity to survive. I knew what was coming in advance because that operation was so famous, and because I recognized the narrative arc (although it was still upsetting for this armchair warrior and bona fide coward to read).

Service, however, lacks the familiar narrative of an epic tragedy. Instead, Luttrell walks the reader through the fight in Ramadi from 2006 to 2008. Patrol after patrol, fire fight after fire fight, frustrating bureaucratic interlude after frustrating bureaucratic interlude - as you read the book, you feel as if you're there and for me, that's a tough feeling. I knew about the bureaucracy (especially the increasingly restrictive rules of engagement), and I had a sort of vague, MSM-ish understanding of the reality of battle, but Luttrell's book is much more intense. Here's part of his description of the end result of a battle that went south for the SEALS:

When the QRF [quick reaction force] arrived outside [the building being attacked] with a couple of Bradleys, the squad moved quickly downstairs and lined up to break out of the house. They tossed two smoke grenades outside to cover their exfil, then burst through the door. Two Iraqis were in the lead, followed by Elliott [Miller, who had shrapnel wounds and was bleeding heavily], hobbling along with help from Johnny Brands. The jundis [Iraqis fighting with the Americans] had just hit the street when the world went dark. The IED might have been dropped down on them from the roof in a backpack. Or it might have been planted in the ground or hung on the gate while they were inside. All we know for sure is that it was a trap set by enemies who were obviously wise to everything we were doing and how we were doing it. They knew that straight-on firefights were losing propositions. So they snuck around and planted their bombs where they thought we'd be. They sure got it right that time. An enormous explosion engulfed our guys as they exited the house.

The explosion killed the two Iraqis leading the way; the first man simply disappeared, evaporated by the blast, his scan remnants driving away in the air, a pink mist, while the second, partly sheltered by the leader, was nearly sliced in half at the waist. The blast still had enough force to devastate Elliott. It tore into his body wherever it wasn't protected by body armor. His legs were shredded from midthigh down. He had a hole in his right shoulder and the parts of him that weren't covered by plates were being eaten into by a terrible chemical residue.

[snip]

Johnny was better off, but that wasn't saying much. Both his feet were attached to his ankles only by the Achilles tendons.

[snip]

Looking down at Elliott, Dozer saw that his friend's legs seemed loose and detached in the bloody mess of his pants. The steel rifle magazine stored in his front vest pouches had been dished in by the blast. Elliott's watch was charred and black but, amazingly, still kept time. Only his body armor saved him from being killed instantly. Dozer ran his hands under Elliott's plates, checking his torso for wounds. As he removed Elliott's gear, Dozer realized he didn't have the first idea where to begin treating such a seriously wounded man. That was when he heard another explosion, a smaller one, go off in the courtyard. A grenade. The insurgents were still out there, probing them, probably planning another attack. ( Service, pp. 145-147.)

And so it goes, as the men work desperately to extricate themselves and their wounded teammates from a rain of fire. The SEAL team did eventually make it to safety, and Elliott and Johnny Brands survived, but it was a close thing, and their injuries were devastating.

I chose the above excerpt because of the immediacy of the story. With Luttrell's narrative abilities and Hornfischer's writing chops, you, the reader, feel as if you're there, in the middle of a battle in the streets of Ramadi. That's why it took me a while to read the book, despite the fact that it's interesting, entertaining, and moving. After going (in my head) through a battle with the guys, I need to rest and regroup.

There are a few overarching themes in the book: Luttrell believes deeply in God, country, and America's armed forces. His love for his twin brother (also a SEAL) and for his SEAL teammates generally is transcendent, and keeps bringing him back to the fight. In addition to being an action-adventure story and an homage to the SEALS specifically and the fighting forces in Ramadi generally, this book is also a eulogy and a memorial to those SEALS who made the ultimate sacrifice there and in Afghanistan: Mark Lee, Michael Monsoor, Carson Vaughn, Jon Tumilson, and so many other good men (including all those who died on August 6, 2011), each one a man who directed his formidable strength, intelligence, and energy, not to mindless X-sports, but to protecting his country and fighting for his comrades.

This middle class, female, armchair warrior walked away from Luttrell's book pretty convinced that Navy SEALS are crazy - but I mean that in a good way. Only crazy people (in a good way) would put themselves through the training they do and live for the fight the way they do.

Thank God for these crazy people, who can bend their energies to a focused fight against bullies, and who have the moral decency to live by America's rules of engagement, even as nothing constrains the other side. Even though Luttrell vividly describes the way the SEALS chafe and suffer at times when the ROEs prevent them from hitting a known and obvious target, they are proud of the fact that they reserve their fire for combatants, and that they neither target nor shield themselves behind the innocents. This ethos, one that one can call civilized warfare," makes the fighting much harder in the rabbit warren of Ramadi, but it is one of the things that separates the heroes from the sadistic bullies.

If you would like to immerse yourself in a book that details ferocious urban warfare against a wily and amoral enemy, Service is your book. The stories are compelling, the writing styling is clear and gripping, and the people you meet in the book are people you'd like to meet in the real world too.

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Book review: Marcus Luttrell's "Service: A Navy SEAL at War" - Bookworm Room

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I promise that this post will be a review of Marcus Luttrell's Service: A Navy SEAL at War. First, though, I have to start with the ridiculous, before I can give proper context, not to the sublime (because war isn't sublime), but to the important and meaningful.